Endless racing

With the Solitaire du Figaro now done and dusted, so the class' Championnat de Figaro Solitaire de Course au Large 2003 (the Figaro class championship series) moves on its next event. Although not as extreme as the Solitaire du Figaro, the Route du Ponant is another singlehanded race and will still be arduous for the crews, who will have bearly had time to recover from the Solitaire.

The Route du Ponant, goes from the Vendee region of France up to the Côtes d'Armor in northern France via Guernsey. 2-4 September will see some round the cans races at Saint Gilles Croix de Vie (the home of Beneteau), before the long distance race up the French coast and round Ouessant kicked off on 5 September. After a night's stopover in Guernsey the boats are due to arrive in Perros Guirec on 8 September, where there will be more round the cans racing.

The man to beat is obviously Créaline skipper Armel Le Cléac'h who has rocketed to the top of the Figaro championship leaderboard since winning the Solitaire du Figaro by just 13 seconds from Alain Gautier.